The valley has teeth & takes a bite now & then. Was out walking with the dog ’bout a week ago across sharp, loose, snow & ice covered aa lava & slipped. The usual fall into it got me a goose egg on the leg, one on the arm that I’m glad missed the funny spot by mm & the hand that did not sink in well past the cobbles. Also not being protected was ripped open across my middle knuckle.
Was over on the Gooch Side looking at a section of opal dirt in between a patent, lode & some millsites while doing a security look around for my friends. Tore open my right hand NOT catching myself well. Took 7 stitches to close it up when I got there hours later, fell at noon, hit Humboldt General Hospital ER in Winnemucca at 5pm. Thought I would not need the sewing the first couple hours after i had staunched it with snow & field dressed it, until i got home & cleaned it & asked the postmistress for a second opinion.
Had a new Dr I had not seen before sew it up & give me antibiotics. Guess she started a few months ago and did not know about the gem opal here yet. I’m always a drummer for Virgin Valley where the world seems way far away & trouble is seldom seen. I did call & let them know I was coming for what & NOT infected with the CCPV having symptoms or acquaintances who were. We do have a little hot spotting going on around here, curse those commies& their bio weapon. Enjoyed a nice dinner at the casino afterwards.
https://www.ntd.com/coronavirus-outbreak
Last night they were getting itchy after giving the dog a bath earlier with an exam glove on it so i took them out. Held together, no infection, good show. Feels much better this morning. Won’t be scrubbing the new chrysocholla, geodes or woods for awhile yet. I went out yesterday and gathered up a gallon of agate nodules since the weather turned nice for a few days. Without La Nina’ this would be frozen over. Not even any snow to reflect the Christmas lights.
The 2021 Quartzsite Improvement Association Pow Wow opens Wednesday at 9am but it has been cut in half for CCPV spacing. http://www.qiaarizona.org/ Precautions will have to be taken for those who attend. I do not expect many buyers from states requiring quarantines if you traveled. Tyson Wells https://www.tysonwells.com/ Desert Gardens & Main Event are on Facebook I guess.
Arizona is a state that has issues with people wearing masks outside for not a good reason.
I left Scott Ryals from Opal Negra as a moderator of the group that was taken from me & boycotted Facebook, but he is busy selling gems on ESTY and not taking daily care like I was. Ray Wood from the Bonanza Corporation was putting up content.
If American opal was not good enough to be cut & set, how do all of us dry the rough or find it, cut & polish it then set it? Every miner from Virgin Valley has draped his loved ones in gemstones they found. Please ignore the ones who say Nevada opal is cursed without any experience using modern methods while they sell competing materials. I get dried rough, cut some & set some, show it in the sun for years dry & yet some ninny naysayers still do not believe it is a gemstone sitting in front of them with the gem box melted off it.
Ive got lots more material to sell since last year in the way of slabs & rough cutting material other than opals from a shop I helped closed out. There are new finds in the ubiquitous display specimens that I collect to sell. Seems the ESTY store must get filled someday instead of just sit there place marking while I keep mining.
This just does not feel like America anymore. We will live with what the incoming President does. Don’t make a point of coming to see me as the Virgin Valley Opal Claim seller, prospector, cutter, jeweler Dealer in Quartzsite Az this year, for I may not be there. 2022 in #206 if not this year. I’ll be down with the rough & finished as always or shopping & digging if I can’t come sell.
If you want to get out of where you are for some recreating, mining, sight seeing call me, year round weather permitting, winter it usually is NOT, for personal attention & success. I wont be bad mouthed or undersold
Its January Showtime in Arizona.